Big and BIG, et cetera

 There is big and there is BIG, and certainly the crane ship Orion qualifies in the latter category. The ship arrived yesterday, May 1, and tied up at the IEL dock in Dartmouth. There was no clear view of the ship from the Halifax side in yesterday's rain and fog, and today didn't start off much better, but things improved as the day wore on, and the high winds died away.

As the fog cleared off, more and more of the ship was revealed.

Its main characteristic is the massive 5,000 tonne capacity crane (with 1500 tonne secondary) which makes the two "smaller" 100 tonne auxiliary cranes look insignificant. 

Built in 2019 by Qidong Shipyard in China, the ship is an offshore installation vessel with accommodation for up to 239 workers and crew. It has a cargo payload capacity of 30,000 tonnes, a moon pool and diver support facilities and is rated DP3 for dynamic positioning. It is rated at 58,203 gt and 60,575 dwt. Named Orion I when  built it was renamed simply Orion in 2022. Owners Deme Offshore Equipment NV of the Netherlands Belgium , are involved in dredging and offshore work. 

The ship will be involved in offshore wind farm installation in the United States, which will be staged from Halifax.

Tuesday's are free days for seniors on Halifax Transit, so a ferry ride on the Woodside ferry Craig Blake provided close up views.

 

It also gave an unusual opportunity to catch three tankers in the same photo.

 In the distance the Irving Oil tanker East Coast was making another one of its visits to Imperial Oil. This is not as rare an event as it might seem as the two companies exchange product regularly.

At the Irving Oil dock in Woodside, next door to the IEL dock, it was the Marshall Islands flag tanker STI Comandante in from Amsterdam with more refined product.

A Handysize ship of 24,230 gt, 38,734 dwt it was built by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan in 2014, and is operated by the Monaco based Scorpio Tankers Inc. (The company was founded by Emanuele Lauro of Italy, and its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.)

Alongside the Orion itself was the bunkering tanker North Atlantic Kairos. Operating out of the Come by Chance refinery in Newfoundland, it is making one of its rare moves outside of Placentia Bay. I am assuming that the Orion needs to top up on fuel for a prolonged work session offshore, where refueling would be difficult. The tanker sailed later this afternoon, returning to its home port.

Built in 2008 by Turkter Shipyard in Tuzla, Turkey, it is a 2985 gt, 3669 dwt ship. It first arrived in Halifax in July 9, 2016 as CT Wicklow. It was then handed over to North Atlantic, and renamed and registered in Canada. It has since made a few trips to Halifax with product for Wilson Fuel.

In a minor note to the Orion visit, a deck barge called the MM 110 arrived in Halifax April 30 in tow of the tug Bevery M1 and is moored directly astern of the Orion.

The 409 gt barge was built in China in 2013 and  is owned by McKeil Workboats GP Inc. 

The tug is standing by at Pier 9, so it may be used as part of Orion's visit.

Speaking of tugs, Atlantic Towing Ltd's tug base has moved from the north end of the IEL dock to the C.O.V.E dock (old Coast Guard Base) in Dartmouth Cove. This may not be a permanent move, and may only be for the duration of the Orion's visit.

.

Service Disruption

The relentless to-ing and fro-ing of the Halifax harbour ferries was disrupted for a few hours today as heavy snow forced the shutdown of municipal services such as transit and refuse collection. With schools, colleges and unversities also closed and many businesses shuttered, at least for a time, the ferries would not have had much business had they been operational for the morning commute.

Unlike ferry services in less sheltered waters, the harbour ferries are rarely effected by weather, and then only in the most extreme conditions. They often run when all other means of transportation grind to a halt.

Today's interruption was short lived as the boats began to run again in the late morning once some roads were clear and it was safe for passengers (and crews) to reach the three terminals. Credited as the oldest (and continously operated) salt water ferry service in North America, and the second oldest in the world* after the Mersey ferry in England, the service dates back to the founding of Halifax in 1749. The first municipally chartered service began in 1752, and has relied on several means of propulsion including horses turning paddle wheels. They were double ended, with two wheelhouses.

 In the early 20th century, the boats were steam powered and carried automobiles until 1956 when the Angus L. Macdonald bridge was built connecting Halifax and Dartmouth. It was then that the noted naval architect William Roue (of schooner Bluenose fame) designed a pair of wooden hulled, diesel powered, pedestrian only, boats that established the basis for future designs.

The little double enders with a centre wheelhouse, did not need to turn around as they travelled  back and forth across the harbour, as they were built with propellors at bow and stern, and operated in forward or reverse mode.They also used the old docking slips at each end of the run. They operated until 1978 when a second generation of boats came into service. These new boats were steel hulled and were sideloading.  New floating terminal structures, gave passengers somewhat more shelter in bad weather.

Named Halifax III and Dartmouth III, they used the Voith - Schneider propulsion system, allowing the engines to change direction and speed by altering the pitch of the vertical prop blades. Otherwise they were remarkably similar in concept and appearance to their Roue-designed predecessors.

Designers E.Y.E. provided a virtually identical design when a third ferry was added to the fleet in 1986 when a second terminal was added on the Dartmouth shore at Woodside. The newest boat was named,  perhaps predictably, Woodside I.

The new route was longer, but all three boats were interchangeable and did take turns, sometimes confusing patrons. All three vessels were built by Ferguson Industries in Pictou, NS.

The current fleet numbers five boats. All were built by A.F.Thériault in Meteghan River between 2014 and 2018 to an upgraded E.Y.E. design, but which still has the distinctive profile given by Roue.
 

Having five boats in the fleet allows for two vessels on each route and a spare to cover maintenenace periods or breakdowns. All boats are named for people, and each boat carries an interpretive panel explaining that person's role in history. 

 

The Wikipedia page on the ferry service gives a brief bio of the namesake for each boat. 

See: Ferry and namesakes

When the current boats came into service the three previuous boats were sold. Dartmouth III made its way to Toronto where it was to run to a waterfront amusement park. So far it has not entered service. Dartmouth III and Woodside I, were acquired by the same owners, but at last report were laid up in Lunenburg, NS.

*I am always wary of "firsts" and "biggests" and "oldests". Our Eurocentric version of history normally excludes a lot of (perhaps) unrecorded events that happened far from western eyes. There have been salt water ferry services as long as there have been bodies of salt water to cross (real or imagined or even flaming). See: Charon

The current boats' "rooster tails" when underway give a bustling appearance, which is entirely appropriate. There is also a hardy breed of passengers who ride "outside" on the weather deck whenever possible. (Sometimes the crew closes the upper deck for safety.)

.

Waiting it out - again

The third major storm to sweep through the area in as many weeks has once again disrupted arrivals and sailings. As today brightened up from last night's snow and rain, there was still very high wind and breaking waves in the harbour. Conditions outside are no doubt much worse.

0nce again a Wilhelmsen ship took up a position at pier 9C. Titania is a 2011 product of Daewoo, Okpo. The 74,255 grt, 30,907 dwt ship has a capacity of 7,934 CEU. It is also much larger, by about 1,000 cars,  than the last two Wilhelmsen ships, Tomar and Toscana that waited out weather at pier 9C.

Also at pier9C, Stellaprima unloaded the Multicat Dominion Warrior. See today's Tugfax.

At pier 27  BBC Ganges in from Baie-Comeau for a brief stopover - and no cargo work - is stuck in port until conditions improve outside.

Built in 2010 by Tianjin Xingang it is a 12,974 grt, 16,943 dwt ship has two 250 tonne cranes and one 80 tonne crane. The big cranes can work in tandem for a 500 tonne lift. The ship originally intended to stay in port for only a few hours yesterday.

At the adjacent pier 31 Hollandia had completed unloading nickel from Cuba for Nirint, and is waiting its turn to leave port.

On February 19 in Oranjestad, Aruba, while hoisting a mobile truck crane from its hold a sling parted and the unit was dropped on the tween deck and heavily damaged. Apparently the ship incurred minimal damage, but the truck crane was in a sorry state.

Once again at anchor in the lower harbour Nolhanava is repeating its performance of the past few weeks. On arrival from its St-Pierre et Miquelon run, its normal berth is occupied by Oceanex Sanderling and it will await its time either at anchor or at pier 9B.

The ship was registered in Canada September 1, 2017.  The Canadian registration show its name as Nolhan Ava and that is how it will be shown here. For some reason the ship's registration is still shown in Transport Canada's online listings, but is also shown as closed, and the ship still carries Briidgetown (Barbados) on its stern. I understood that it was moved to Canadian flag to allow it to call in Newfoundland as well as St-Pierre on its weekly trips, but whether this has happened yet I am not sure. I believe it does carry a Canadian crew. 

In Bedford Basin CSL Tacoma is waiting out the weather with its cargo of gypsum bound for the US.

Also at anchor is the tanker Silver Millie Built in 2015 by Hyundai Mipo, Ulsan, it is a typical mid-range (MR) product tanker, of 29,327 grt, 49,642 dwt.

When conditions improve, it will dock at Imperial Oil. Interestingly its last port was Vondeling, Netherlands (within the port of Rotterdam). It is the first foreign tanker at Imperial Oil in several weeks - ever since Algoscotia began shuttling product from Lévis, QC. Prior to that Imperial was getting refined product from the US Gulf.

 Harbour ferries were battling it out against wind and some swell as they maintained their regular schedules.

Woodside I was doing some rolling as it lined up for arrival in Halifax from Woodside.

Craig Blake was doing some splashing on its way to Halifax.

And at Fairview Cove, YM Epress moved under the big cranes to work cargo after Dalian Express had finished. Dalian Express then moved to the east end of the pier to await an improvement in sailing conditions.

Wind driven salt spray in the Narrows almost blots out the Dartmouth shore, despite bright sunshine.

.

Oversight corrected - Craig Blake

Among the several oversights in the last few weeks, I neglected to mention that the newest addition to the Halifax harbor ferry service, Craig Blake entered service in September.

So far the new boat has been running mostly on the Woodside to Halifax run, with Christopher Stannix, but as with all members of the fleet, it could run on either the Woodside or Alderney route.

Craig Blake wears the latest colour scheme for the newly re-branded Halifax Transit (formerly Metro Transit).

To see some of those previous colour schemes refer to these posts:

http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2015/02/ferries-named-halifax-and-dartmouth.html

http://shipfax.blogspot.ca/2015/02/ferries-named-halifax-and-dartmouth_16.html

.